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Words Can Kill

The American Spectator gives us a historical example of exactly how a loyal opposition should act during wartime. In 1942, the Republicans had plenty of ammunition to use against FDR. Theories about his incompetence leading to Pearl Harbor, or worse that FDR knew the attack would happen, were commonplace. The isolationist United States was now sucked into a worldwide conflict that it was not prepared for. So how should the Republicans react . . . ?

Savage FDR? Run on a campaign of "Roosevelt lied and people died"? Should they go out and tell the American people just how dangerously incompetent the man was, that the best thing to do was make peace with Hitler and Japan's Hirohito, then elect Republicans who would simply force FDR to bring home the boys and let the rest of the world cope with chaos? After all, a few years earlier FDR himself had turned back an ocean liner filled with 937 Jews escaping the looming Holocaust. The idea of not making Hitler, Hirohito or Mussolini any angrier than they were was certainly one approach.

...

What happened in 1942?

The Republicans won the election, gaining 44 new House seats and 10 in the Senate, not quite a majority, but erasing FDR's control. Dewey won in New York and was instantly bannered as a presidential sure thing. GOP gubernatorial candidates won across the country.

What was FDR's reaction? The news account of his post-election press conference reported FDR "laughs." Why? Said the headline: "Assumes New Congress is for Winning, So Why Should Poll Make Any Difference?"

And the Nazis and the Japanese? The so-called Axis Powers? What was their response? The New York Times editorial page trumpeted "an admission from Berlin that it would be 'harboring an illusion' to expect the Republican victory to bring any change whatever in the policy of the United States." Focusing on the silence of Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels, the paper concluded: "His silence is proof of the fact that we have made the unity of our purpose apparent to our enemies."

We're a long way from 1942.

Far from being silent, our enemies such as Osama bin Laden fairly regularly send out tapes that regurgitate the Democrats' talking points. Osama does not need to work all that hard to put together a PR campaign - he has Michael Moore on hand to do exactly that for him, who issues propaganda tailored to an American audience in a way bin Laden could not achieve on his own, and could not purchase with tens of millions of dollars.

(h/t Dean Esmay and QandO)

Posted by Ken McCracken · 2 September 2006 08:51 PM

Comments

Posted by: lester at September 3, 2006 09:48 AM

Posted by: lester at September 8, 2006 08:28 PM